SACW #1 | 10 Aug. 2003

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire #1   |  10 August,  2003


[1.] India-Pakistan: Friendship as Enmity (Irfan Ahmad)
[2.]  India-Pakistan: Do a Noor to Munir (Praful Bidwai)
[3.] Sri Lanka: Killings Continue With Impunity (Human Rights watch 
and Amnesty Int.)
[4.] Sri Lanka: Rights groups say LTTE-linked killings continue with 
impunity (Amnesty Int.)
[5.] Strings attached	: Is a Pakistani kite flying ban purely in 
the interests of public safety, or are there hardline religious 
reasons behind it? (Rory McCarthy)
[6.] Others, as we know them - Pakistanis seem determined to live in 
a world where ignorance runs deep and where curious stories about 
'others' abound (Kamila Hyat)
[7.] Lahore Organizations Commemorating Hiroshima - Nagasaki (Rehman Faiz)

--------------

[1.]

The Economic and Political Weekly [India]
August 2, 2003
Commentary

India-Pakistan: Friendship as Enmity

While one can barely deny the importance of the episode of Noor 
Fatima from Pakistan receiving medical treatment in Bangalore, an 
excavation into our mass psyche would perhaps reveal something 
extremely disturbing. Treating Fatima was not a usual apolitical 
medical practice. It is rather an unusual political gesture of 
benevolence arising out of a profound sense of otherness based on a 
clash of national identities, Indian versus Pakistani. In the 
otherwise spontaneous gesture to negate the otherness of her there is 
simultaneously an unconscious affirmation of her otherness premised 
on national identity.

Irfan Ahmad

The unbounded enthusiasm and joy expressed both in Pakistani and 
Indian media over the successful open heart surgery in Bangalore (on 
July 15) of Noor Fatima, a Pakistani baby, has been widely and 
uncritically hailed as a new milestone of friendship on the otherwise 
bloody road of Indo-Pak relations. This episode, otherwise of hardly 
any significance, has assumed such tremendous importance that even 
CNN telecast (on July 21 in Amsterdam) a special report on it. Indian 
media, particularly the English newspapers, reported her updates 
almost on a daily basis. Photographs of children holding bouquets and 
best-wishes cards for Fatima were published (The Pioneer, July 16). 
Karnataka's information minister visited hospital to enquire about 
her health (Deccan Herald, July 16). And it was not uncommon to hear 
the middle class Indian intelligentsia wedded to peace in south Asia 
fervently talk about it. 'Look, they are so much like us'.

While one can barely deny the importance of this episode, an 
excavation into our mass psyche would perhaps reveal something 
extremely disturbing. It would not be unjustified to ask: What is so 
unique about Faitma getting medical treatment in a Bangalore 
hospital? Do not dozens of Indians undergo such an operation every 
day in different hospitals of India? Do their stories of treatment 
even get mentioned in the media? For instance, a poor, illiterate 
person from Bihar travels all the way to Bangalore or New Delhi to 
get medical treatment. Why does not her poignant story get into the 
media headlines even as she faces humiliation and deception right 
from the village lord through her train journey up to the 
maltreatment by officials, for instance, of New Delhi's All India 
Institute of Medical Science?

A moment's reflection would tell us that the story of the Bihari 
woman getting treatment is nothing unusual. It is 'natural'. By 
contrast Fatima's treatment is 'unnatural' and 'unusual'. She belongs 
to the nation of enemy; yet those who do not belong to her nation can 
treat her. Fatima and her parents may not have undergone the same 
hardship the Bihari woman may have: yet the latter is not a story 
worth reporting. Given media's unofficial principle to report things 
dramatic and unusual, her story does not fit the bill. She may be a 
country bumpkin coming from a proverbial corrupt, and backward 
territory of Bihar but she is far from an enemy. She can be butt of 
joke or heartless derision for the 'cultured' Delhites or Bombayites. 
But seldom is she an object of hatred as an enemy. Fatima, by 
contrast, belongs to the territory of a nation unanimously regarded 
as an enemy and hence an object of suspicion bordering on hatred. 
Treating her is not a usual apolitical medical practice. It is rather 
an unusually extended political gesture of benevolence arising out of 
a profound sense of otherness based on a clash of national 
identities, Indian versus Pakistani. In the otherwise spontaneous 
gesture to negate the otherness of her and probably bring her closer 
to us - this is what the media seeks to show through its excessive 
coverage of Fatima rather than the Bihari woman - there is 
simultaneously an unconscious affirmation of her otherness premised 
on national identity.

It is this feeling of Indian nationalism anchored on an oppositional 
identity of 'the other' vis-à-vis Pakistan and the vice versa that 
explains the media attention to Fatima's treatment. It seemingly 
tends to defy the deeply entrenched belief - some might argue far 
more sacred than belief in religion - of most Indians and Pakistanis 
as being two different, nay, mutually inimical, people on both sides 
of the border. Ernest Gellner is quite correct in observing that so 
pervasive is the influence of nationalism that people think 
nationally rather than rationally. One must hasten to add that 
nationalists around the globe present nationalism as rationalism, 
however. Cast against this backdrop, Fatima getting treatment in 
India almost appears like a Jew embracing a German soon after the 
second world war, or a 'Negro' walking with a white woman in 
Montgomery during the pre-civil rights movement era in the US as so 
beautifully shown in a Hollywood film 'Far From Heaven'. To take a 
more recent example, it looks as common sense-defying as a Taliban 
commander hugging an American soldier (all the three examples could 
easily be reversed).

Nationalists, whatever their colour, often make a distinction between 
at least three sets of peoples - friends, foes and strangers. The 
first two are obvious. The last one is by definition liminal. For 
nationalists in both India and Pakistan citizens of Brazil or Kenya 
are thus strangers. They would, therefore, invoke neither a hearty 
welcome nor a hostile rejection. As a stranger a Brazilian or Kenyan 
getting a medical treatment in India would, therefore, have hardly 
made news. As a kid born in Pakistan, Fatima on the other hand is not 
a stranger by any standard. She clearly belongs to the nation 
rendered as 'the other' in the hegemonic Indian nationalist 
imagination. It is altogether another matter that as a kid she knows, 
thankfully, no nation as yet.

'Otherness' and National Identity

Where does this belief of otherness emanate from? To be sure, it is 
the newly created nation states called India and Pakistan after the 
Partition of India in 1947 that have madly struggled to create 
'Indians' and 'Pakistanis' as opposed to exemplary human beings in 
the past fifty years or so. In their nationalist obsession to create 
Pakistani (based on Islam) and Indian (based on Indian civilisation 
predominantly defined in Hindu terms by the currently ruling Bhartiya 
Janata Party) the respective nation states have fashioned by design 
hostility in their citizens against each other. The generation that 
witnessed Partition had still some vivid experiences of shared 
cultures and common civilisational roots. With its near passing away 
and onset of new generation in both the countries there was hardly 
anything left of that shared cultures. Memories, though fading, 
definitely were there. But that too were allowed, rather forced, to 
extinguish or go into dim oblivion. The post-Partition generation on 
either side of the borders thus grew on the powerful myths of mutual 
otherness manufactured by respective nation state and filtered down 
either by their mighty institutions such as schools, colleges and 
media or mass-based political-religious parties in the civil 
societies. As a result, on both sides of the border new generations 
have developed a sense of hostile otherness towards each other.

For many on both sides of the Indo-Pak border the numerous wars waged 
between the two countries were the first ever lesson in nationalism. 
They hardly knew of a nation before. It is commonly believed that 
feeling of nationalism based on otherness causes war. From this 
perspective war is thus only a culmination of antagonism of a wide 
variety between the two already accomplished nations. There is a good 
enough reason to unsettle such a popular view. Far from being a 
result of an a priori nationalist solidarity, war is indeed its 
cause. The Indo-Pak war of September 1965 demonstrated it so clearly.

Barely six months after the war, Naim Tahir, a writer in Pakistan, 
expressed, perhaps unconsciously, this view in such a ruthlessly 
categorical way. Reflecting on the role of writers in a crisis like 
war he wrote:

Our experience before the crisis were merely of an individualistic 
nature, at most shared by a few thousands or a few lakhsŠ. We now 
feel to be one nation more than ever before. In fact, if we want to 
become one nation the experience of this war will have be of the 
utmost significance in the achievement of that goal [italics mine, 
quoted in Naim 1969: 276].


Tahir's is not an idiosyncratic view. One can cite more or less a 
similar view from the Indian side too. Without multiplying examples, 
one should, however, ask: what is Tahir's feeling of 'one nation more 
than ever before' pitted against? He and his colleagues defined it 
essentially against India, nay a 'Hindu' India. The century old ties 
with India were denied. Indeed India became the other personified and 
the self of the 'one nation more than ever before' was instead 
stretched, rather too generously, to include Persia and the Arab 
world (ibid).

Likewise for the new generation on both sides of the border the war 
afterwards (including the Kargil War) created a nation. The national 
identity based on violent notion of otherness periodically kept on 
inventing nation. But far more important than irregular wars it was 
the regularised institutions of schooling that ceaselessly produced 
the otherness. Following the gory Partition institutions of schooling 
and higher education were established to create 'Pakistanis' and 
'Indians'. On the Pakistan side books were hurriedly printed on a 
mass scale to transform people into 'Pakistani'. But what it meant to 
be a Pakistani? A coherent positive definition was indeed hard to 
discover. It could, then, only be defined in opposition to Indian 
(read Hindus; Muslims in India either did not exist or if they did 
they mattered little). Gul Shahzad Sarwar-authored textbook, a 
compulsory reading for graduates of all subjects, christened Pakistan 
Studies thus contends:

When the Hindu was contemplating his past, he thought of Kautallya 
[Sic] (the author of Arth-Shastra); when the Muslim looked back, he 
recalled Al-Farabi. The philosophical past of the two peoples was so 
different as to obliterate any prevailing community of thought.
ŠMuslims looked to Mughal buildings as their artistic heritage. It 
was the Taj Mahal of Agra or the Red Fort of Delhi or the Royal 
Mosque at Lahore, which stirred their imagination and excited their 
pride. On the other hand, the Hindus were equally impressed and 
affected by the architecture of south Indian temples, the Rajput or 
Kanga schools of painting, or the Gandhara school which was 
definitely Hindu in origin and nature [Sarwar 1989: 17-18].

Taking this argument of perennial otherness to a more conclusive 
height he argues that Pakistan was created to further Muslim 
distinctiveness. "It is obvious that the purpose of establishing a 
separate homeland for the Muslims", writes he, "was to safeguard the 
Islamic ideology" (1989: 26). It raises two interlinked questions. 
First, what is Islamic ideology? His answer is a political order 
based on Divine Laws and the one that existed during Prophet 
Muhammad's time, Nizam-e-Mustafa. Second, who is it to be safeguarded 
against? Sarwar mentions, occasionally explicitly but more often 
implicitly, that it is the Indian Hindus against whom Islamic 
ideology is to be safeguarded. Millions of students have thus been 
indoctrinated over generations along this ideology of hostile 
otherness. In this context the role of religious seminaries, firmly 
established and widely dispersed in civil society, cannot be 
underestimated. As of now more than a million and a half students 
study in over 10,000 madrasas in Pakistan [ICG 2002:2].

On the Indian side too the process of producing an Indian identity in 
opposition to Pakistan has not been any different in essence. Unlike 
in Pakistan in India this, however, remained largely a force outside 
of the state's arena until the dramatic rise of BJP. With its rise 
since the late 1980s, the process of producing an Indian was 
ruthlessly set in motion. And much like in Pakistan, the BJP defined 
this Indian identity essentially against a Muslim other, Pakistan 
being its embodiment par excellence and Indian Muslims being either 
irrelevant or at best silent agents of the latter. Having captured 
power in 1991 in UP, it changed the curriculum of primary and 
secondary schools. The textbooks prepared in 1991 for primary schools 
by Basic Shiksha Parishad (BSP), an organ of UP state education 
department, clearly reflects the kind of nationalist Indian it seeks 
to produce through its pedagogical arsenal. Stating the larger 
mission behind its textbooks, BSP says:

Its [textbook's] subject matter aims at enhancing knowledge of male 
and female students and also to develop their potential and abilities 
so as to make them useful citizens for the nation and society 
[italics and translation mine, quoted in Siddiqui 2000: 2].


What is being taught to the children to become useful citizens for 
Indian nation? In several of its textbooks, mostly relating to 
humanities, it defined Indian nation exclusively in terms of Hindu 
culture. Muslims either do not figure at all in this definition or 
when they appear they do only as 'the other' of Indian nation. A 
chapter titled 'Hamari Dharohar' (Our Heritage) in a textbook for 
standard three, Hamari Dunya, Hamara Samaj (Our World, Our Society) 
offers a clever style of indoctrinating students in a simplistically 
monolithic 'Hindu' history. "In our nation Chandragupta Maurya, 
Ashok, Chandrgupt, Vikramaditya et cetera rulers", says the text, 
"were born" (Ibid: 5). By deliberately omitting other rulers of India 
it undoubtedly wants to inject into young budding minds that only 
those mentioned were India's rulers. In the Indian nation thus rulers 
such as Sher Shah Suri, Akbar and Shahjahan simply did not exist.

When Muslim or Islam is mentioned it is done in a manner that it 
emerges as quintessentially 'the other' of Indian nation. In part two 
of the book cited above it mentions Guru Nanak as follows: Initially, 
Guru Nanak was under the influence of Islam. He also went to the 
famous pilgrimage of Muslims in Mecca. But he was pained to see the 
ostentation and deception (Aadambar) in the name of religion there. 
Guru Nanak opposed religious ostentation and deception [Ibid: 5].

In a beautifully smart way, the lines quoted above seek unambiguously 
to suggest that Muslims' religious belief to perform pilgrimage to 
Mecca is a sign of ostentation and deception. In so doing Muslims are 
thus rendered as the other of Indian nation defined solely in Hindu 
terms. Not a single word is mentioned about Hinduism and the reasons 
why Nanak preferred to leave it.


BJP's hijacking of state institutions such as government schools is 
quite recent, though. Prior to capturing state it has been silently 
but rigorously spreading its anti-Muslim nationalist ideology through 
its thousands of schools run through the length and breadth of the 
country. Discredited and pushed to margin after Gandhi's 
assassination, the first major collective initiative of Rashtriya 
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ideological fountainhead of BJP, was to 
establish a primary school at Gorakhpur in 1952. In 1977 RSS set up 
Vidya Bharti to bring about a better coordination among its chain of 
school. By the beginning of early 1990s its network of schools grew 
amazingly huge with 4,000 schools, 40 colleges and 36,000 teachers 
and in number next only to the government ones. In the last 50 years 
or so these RSS schools have produced through its declared as well as 
hidden curriculum 'Hindus' who define themselves only in a virulent 
opposition to Muslims and Pakistan [Sarkar 1994; also see RSS. 
Undated. Rashtriya Jagran Abhiyan. Folder circulated for its campaign 
during November 12 to December 12, 2000. In Hindi.)

Ban on Kite Flying

The latest in the production of this binary, hostile otherness on the 
Pakistani side is the ban City Administration of Lahore has imposed 
on kite flying. It says that flying kites and celebrating the century 
old festival of Basant are against the public interest. Though the 
main arguments justifying the ban are apparently economic and 
security related such as extravagance, fights and killing and so on, 
the really deeper reason is the self-created spectre of Hinduism 
haunting Pakistan's Muslim nationalism. "Flying kites and Basant 
are", declares it, "against the spirit and teachings of 
Islam"('Patangbazi Ghair Islami Hai' (Kite Flying is un-Islamic), BBC 
Urdu. Com. 2003, July 22. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/news/030722_kite_ban_ court_fz.shtml, in 
Urdu.) From such a position, it follows then that the festival of 
Basant with its origin in Hinduism ('Govt Issued Notice on Petition: 
Ban on Kite-Flying', July 4. Internet Edition, Dawn 2003) would have 
no place whatsoever in a Muslim Pakistan. But what about flying kites?

In one of his poetic masterpieces, Kaun Dushman Hai (who is the 
enemy?), composed in the shadow of Indo-Pak war of 1965, the late Ali 
Sardar Jafri had skilfully mobilised Banaras and Lahore as two 
glorious symbols for his dream of a war- and hostility-free future 
Indian subcontinent. Lahore and Banaras for him symbolised the 
antithesis of an aggressive nationalism paraded by ruling elites in 
both the countries.

Clad in flowers of Lahore's garden, you  come
With fresh light of Banaras' morning we  come
And then ask
Who is the enemy? (translation mine,  quoted in Ahmad 2001: 407).

Sadly enough, the multicultural universe of Lahore with its proud 
history of cosmopolitan heritage and exemplary tolerance, much like 
that of Banaras, now appears to be vitiated with an exclusivist, 
monocultural language. But when more and more kites begin to fly over 
Lahore's sky and Basant is celebrated with far more passion, stories 
of Fatimas getting medical treatment in India would for the better 
cease to become sensationally unusual headlines across the border?

References

Ahmad, Irfan( 2001): 'In Memoriam: Ali Sardar Jafri - 1913-2000', 
Annual of Urdu Studies (University of Wisconsin and Madison): 16: 
405-408.
ICG (International Crisis Group) (2002): Pakistan: Madrasas, 
Extremism and the Military. Islamabad/Brussels, ICG Asia Report, No 
36.
Naim, Chaudhuri Mohammed (1969): 'The Consequences of Indo-Pakistani 
War for Urdu Language and Literature: A Parting of Ways?', The 
Journal of Asian Studies, 28(2): 269-83.
Sarkar, Tanika (1989): 'Educating the Children of the Hindu Rashtra, 
Notes on RSS Schools', South Asia Bulletin, 14(2): 10-15.
Sarwar, Gul Shahzad (1989): Pakistan Studies, Karachi: Qamar Kitab 
Ghar, Revised Edition.
Siddiqui, Shakil (2000): Samajik Vighatan aur Pathyya Pustaken - 1 
(Social Disintegration and Curriculum-1: Udbhavna), Delhi, in Hindi.


______


[2.]

[ Thanks to civil rights activists in India and progressive 
journalists taking up the case of the 13 year old boy from Pakistan 
being imprisoned in India for straying across the border, the 
authorities have finally relented and agreed to release the boy. 
Posted below is and article by Praful Bidwai and the reactions from 
the Human rights commission of Pakistan]

o o o

The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, August 8, 2003

Do a Noor to Munir

Praful Bidwai

The innocent boy who strayed across the border deserves the same 
compassion and care as little Noor. This is a test for our rulers to 
prove they can be decent and humane

*******

In just 20 days, little Noor Fatima has done more for India-Pakistan 
people-to-people relations than all our diplomats, political leaders 
and Track-II participants put together have in as many years! The 
two-year-old who came to this country for heart surgery produced a 
near-magical effect on the Indian lay public’s attitude to the people 
of Pakistan.

It’s as if Noor suddenly liberated us from deep, long-felt prejudices 
about our neighbours and made us see them as human beings—much like 
ourselves, without horns, capable and worthy of human contact and 
friendship, and above all, ordinary decency. Yes, Pakistanis!

This changed perception—and not merely empathy and goodwill for her 
and her parents—explains the staggering reception Noor got from every 
nook and corner of India. There was no petty-minded carping about the 
unprecedented welcome accorded to her even from those who nurture a 
visceral hatred of Pakistan.

More gifts, toys and money poured in for Noor than her parents knew 
what to do with. In reverse, they, equally generously, created a 
special fund to support Indian children in medical distress.

Noor embodies the kind of innocence which instantly disarms. For many 
Indians, she was a child to be just as naturally adored, loved and 
cared for as their own babies. She became an icon of hope and the 
symbol of a possible new dawn.

Only the mean-spirited and bloody-minded can remain unaffected by the 
Noor Phenomenon. Noor and the 20 other children India has promised to 
medically treat gratis, will be welcomed again and again to this 
country.

Contrast this with the treatment accorded to Munir (13), from Vatu in 
Bahawalpur in Pakistan, who on June 26 accidentally strayed across 
the border into Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district. His account of 
straying was authenticated by as many as five official Indian 
agencies. Yet, he was immediately jailed.

More than five weeks later, he is still under detention. Those who 
have seen him on television could not have failed to be impressed 
either by his charm or his dismay at his detention.

The contrast is, partly, directly about class. Unlike middle-class 
Noor, Munir is desperately poor. His father Bilal Mohammed comes from 
a family of cowherds, and sells kulfi in distant Lahore to survive. 
Munir is also illiterate. He possesses no documents.

On June 26, he lost his way from Vatu to Mochipur village to which he 
was despatched by his mother to borrow Rs 500 from her brother.

Munir’s plight is also about entrenched bureaucratic cussedness, bad 
laws and anti-citizen legal procedures and practices. He was first 
charged with vagrancy, although the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 
explicitly prohibits this. In contravention of the law, he was not 
produced before a magistrate or the Juvenile Justice Board. (The 
Juvenile Justice Act mandates the second).

Munir was illegally incarcerated in a regular (adult) jail for a 
whole month. His treatment violated the international Convention for 
the Rights of the Child to which India is a signatory since 1992. 
Separating a child from its family in an alien country is surely an 
infringement of its fundamental right to life and liberty. This right 
is guaranteed by the Constitution of India under Article 21 to all 
persons, not just Indian citizens.

However, it’s a safe bet that nobody will be held accountable nor 
even mildly punished for causing avoidable suffering to a child—such 
is the supremely callous administrative system we inherit in all of 
South Asia.

But ordinary citizens of Rajasthan were moved by Munir’s story. Some 
spent their own money to get legal and humanitarian help for him. 
Thanks to the intervention of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, 
Munir was transferred a week ago to a Juvenile Observation Home.

On August 4, a special meeting of the Child Welfare Committee was 
called. It recommended that Munir should be repatriated to Pakistan 
by the government of Rajasthan or India, or alternatively, kept in 
the Juvenile Home till he turns 18!

Those who know anything about Juvenile Homes in India know that 
prolonged detention in them is the surest recipe for the 
brutalisation and transformation of children into hardened criminals. 
But children’s repatriation, say Rajasthan bureaucrats from actual 
experience, can take a year—if “expedited”, at least three months. 
This is also true of innocent fisherfolk from both countries who 
regularly stray into each other’s territorial waters and are detained 
for two, five, 10 years.

Noor returned to her family in Pakistan with what her doctors called 
a “happy heart”. Both Indians and Pakistanis felt pleased at and 
proud of this.

So here’s a chance for their governments to prove they too can be 
unsordid and humane, and act like most decent people would. The two 
countries’ High Commissioners should immediately pick up the phone, 
and call each other, and their respective home secretaries.

Even better, Prime Minister Vajpayee should call his counterpart 
Jamali and bring Munir’s plight to a happy end. A BSF unit should 
escort him across the border and hand him over ceremoniously to the 
Pakistan Rangers.

Munir, I am told, immensely enjoyed the kheer he was served by the 
Rajasthan villagers who were bewitched by his simplicity, 
innocence—and yes, cuteness. Surely he deserves yet other helpings of 
kheer on both sides of the border.


o o o

[Related matter]

The Daily Times [ Pakistan] August 10, 2003
HRCP WELCOMES INDIAN DECISION TO RETURN PAKISTANI BOY

Staff Report
LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Secretary 
General Hina Gillani on Saturday welcomed the decision by the Indian 
prime minister to order the release of Munir, a 13-year-old Pakistani 
boy.
Munir strayed into India from his village in Bahawalpur and was 
arrested for entering in Rajasthan illegally in June this year.
She said the gesture came at a time when people-to-people contact 
between the two countries was on the rise because of recent peace 
overtures.
"There is a need to build confidence among the people that the other 
side respects their dignity and rights as human beings," she added.
Welcoming the decision by the Indian premier, Ms Jilani said it would 
contribute to creating positive images that would strengthen the 
peace process.

______


[3.]

Sri Lanka: Killings Continue With Impunity

(New York, August 7, 2003) - There is convincing evidence that the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are taking advantage of the
ceasefire with the Sri Lankan government to murder political
opponents, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today.

"The end of the fighting in Sri Lanka has not meant an end to the
killing," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of
Human Rights Watch. "Members of Tamil political parties are being
gunned down and the available evidence points to the Tamil Tigers."

Human Rights Watch issued a briefing paper today urging the Norwegian-
led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission to aggressively investigate and make
public its findings in cases of alleged political violence. In an open
letter to be published on August 12, Amnesty International will call
on the LTTE, the SLMM and the Sri Lankan police to take immediate
action to stop these human rights abuses, and bring to justice those
responsible for these crimes.

At least 22 people with links to Tamil political parties opposed to
the LTTE have been killed in politically motivated attacks since the
government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE signed a ceasefire in February
2002. Many others have been abducted, their fate still unknown. In
several instances, witnesses have identified the perpetrators as
members of the LTTE. All available evidence points to a systematic
campaign by the LTTE to silence opposition voices.

"Any improvements to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka are now
at risk of being undermined by these killings," said Ingrid Massage,
interim director of the Asia Pacific Program of Amnesty International.
"The use of political assassinations and violence threatens to
seriously undermine moves made towards establishing a just system of
governance that will serve all citizens of Sri Lanka."

The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission consists of about 50 monitors from
Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. To date, the monitoring
mission has interpreted its mandate narrowly. Although it has
increasingly addressed complaints of abuse against civilians,
especially abduction of children for recruitment and extortion cases,
it has not pursued substantial investigations of alleged political
killings.

"We are concerned that Norway may be reluctant to investigate these
crimes for fear of compromising its role mediating talks between the
LTTE and the government," Adams said. Human Rights Watch urged the Sri
Lankan Monitoring Mission to develop its capability to conduct in-
depth investigations of such cases.

The Sri Lankan police and the LTTE also need to act to stop the
killings. "While recognizing the difficulties the police face in
investigating these crimes, this does not excuse their failure so far
to bring to justice those responsible," said Massage. "Given the
weight of evidence, it is the responsibility of the LTTE to
immediately halt these killings and ensure its members fully abide by
human rights provisions in the ceasefire agreement. They must also
fully cooperate in any investigations conducted by the Sri Lankan
Monitoring Mission."

To view the briefing paper, please see:
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/srilanka080603.htm

______


[4.]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

AI Index:        ASA 37/003/2003    (Public)
News Service No:         186
7 August 2003

   Sri Lanka: Rights groups say LTTE-linked killings continue with impunity

There is convincing evidence that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil 
Eelam (LTTE) are taking advantage of the cease-fire with the Sri 
Lankan government to murder political opponents, Human Rights Watch 
and Amnesty International said today.  

         "The end of the fighting in Sri Lanka has not meant an end to 
the killing," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia 
Division of Human Rights Watch.  "Members of Tamil political parties 
are being gunned down and the available evidence points to the Tamil 
Tigers."

         Human Rights Watch issued a briefing paper today urging the 
Norwegian-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission to aggressively 
investigate and make public its findings in cases of alleged 
political violence. In an open letter to be published on August 12, 
Amnesty International will call on the LTTE, the SLMM and the Sri 
Lankan police to take immediate action to stop these human rights 
abuses, and bring to justice those responsible for these crimes.

         At least 22 people with links to Tamil political parties 
opposed to the LTTE have been killed in politically motivated attacks 
since the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE signed a cease-fire in 
February 2002.  Many others have been abducted, their fate still 
unknown. In several instances witnesses have identified the 
perpetrators as members of the LTTE.  All available evidence points 
to a systematic campaign by the LTTE to silence opposition voices.

         "Any improvements to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka 
are now at risk of being undermined by these killings," said Ingrid 
Massage, interim director of the Asia Pacific Program of Amnesty 
International. "The use of political assassinations and violence 
threatens to seriously undermine moves made towards establishing a 
just system of governance that will serve all citizens of Sri Lanka."

         The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission consists of about 50 
monitors from Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. To date 
the monitoring mission has interpreted its mandate narrowly. Although 
it has increasingly addressed complaints of abuse against civilians, 
especially abduction of children for recruitment and extortion cases, 
it has not pursued substantial investigations of alleged political 
killings.  

         "We are concerned that Norway may be reluctant to investigate 
these crimes for fear of compromising its role mediating talks 
between the LTTE and the government," Adams said. Human Rights Watch 
urged the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission to develop its capability to 
conduct in-depth investigations of such cases.

         The Sri Lankan police and the LTTE also need to act to stop 
the killings. "While recognizing the difficulties the police face in 
investigating these crimes, this does not excuse their failure so far 
to bring to justice those responsible," said Massage. "Given the 
weight of evidence, it is the responsibility of the LTTE to 
immediately halt these killings and ensure its members fully abide by 
human rights provisions in the cease-fire agreement. They must also 
fully cooperate in any investigations conducted by the Sri Lankan 
Monitoring Mission."

For more information, please contact Amnesty International on + 44 
207 413 5566 or
Human Rights Watch on + 1 212 216 1841

Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office 
in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW.  web: 
http://www.amnesty.org

______


[5.]

The Guardian [UK]
August 8, 2003
Islamabad dispatch

Strings attached

Is a Pakistani kite flying ban purely in the interests of public 
safety, or are there hardline religious reasons behind it? Rory 
McCarthy reports

		It used to be only the Taliban who so opposed kite 
flying that they ordered it banned. The extremist mullahs who ruled 
Afghanistan believed the sight of skies filled with small, paper 
kites was somehow un-Islamic. On the day the Taliban finally fled 
Kabul, the kites returned to the skies of the Afghan capital as a 
symbol of celebration.

Now, to the astonishment of many, the ban has re-emerged in Lahore, 
the steamy, liberal, cultural heart of Pakistan. Last month, Mian 
Aamer Mahmood, the head of the city council, ordered a three-month 
ban on kite flying. Illegal kite flyers, he warned, faced 
prosecution. The skies above the city's large parks have been empty 
ever since.

Mr Mahmood's officials insisted the ban was motivated purely by 
concerns of safety. Kite flying in Pakistan is frequently more a 
competition than a hobby. Flyers pit their kites against each other 
in skilled attempts to cut their rival's strings. Bets are 
occasionally laid, and to gain advantage most flyers buy string which 
has been specially soaked in a ground-glass and occasionally 
ground-metal paste that hardens to make the string slice like a 
knife. Some even use wire strings.

But in the crowded streets of Lahore's old city, the kite strings are 
as much a liability as an entertainment. City officials say at least 
45 people have died of kite-related injuries in the past six months. 
Many of them were young boys whose wire strings hit electrical power 
lines, causing short circuits. Occasionally motorcyclists are 
garrotted by fallen wire strings and dozens of kite flyers sustain 
serious cuts to their fingers.

"A game should be a game and not a source of danger to the public," 
Mr Mahmood said. The temporary ban is intended to give city officials 
time to consider how to tackle the problem in the future.

Already savings are being made, they say. Short circuits caused 
frequent blackouts in Lahore's antiquated electrical supply and 
repairs would run to as much as £30,000 every weekend.

"The collective damage to home appliances has also run into billions 
of rupees," Mr Mahmood said. Since the ban started last month, there 
have been far fewer blackouts. Officials say the cost of repairs has 
fallen to around 1,000 each weekend.

Inevitably the kite makers are furious, sensing that their 
livelihoods are under threat. There are dozens of shops across the 
city, where paper kites have been carefully made by hand for decades. 
They now face closure.

But others warn there may be a darker side to the decision. Kite 
flying in Lahore has commonly been associated with the spring 
festival of Basant, when the city is cloaked in saffron-yellow and 
crowded with parties, dancing and celebration.

Hardline religious clerics have long railed against Basant, and the 
kite-flying that accompanies it, as un-Islamic. In a revealing 
statement presented to the courts in Lahore at the time of the kite 
ban, Khawaja Mohammad Afzal, the city's legal adviser, wrote: "The 
use of fire crackers, music and dance on such occasions is 
un-Islamic."

There have already been other incursions on Lahore's liberal 
traditions this year. Advertising billboards in the city depicting 
women were painted over. An attempt was made in the English 
department at Punjab University to purge the curriculum of some of 
the most famous works of English literature because they were deemed 
too "vulgar".

However, Mr Mahmood and his officials are likely to come to some form 
of eventual compromise over the kites, that allows the flying to 
continue but outlaws the dangerous wire and glass-coated strings. Few 
in Lahore will be ready to countenance Taliban-style rule in their 
city.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

_______


[6.]

The News on Sunday [ Pakistan]
August 10, 2003

Others, as we know them
Pakistanis seem determined to live in a world where ignorance runs 
deep and where curious stories about 'others' abound

By Kamila Hyat

Shoaib Khan, 13, speaks with firm authority on the prospects of 
future peace talks between Pakistan and India. "This is all a plot by 
the Hindus to meet some devious end," he insists. "The Hindus and 
India have been against Pakistan since the day it was created and 
they are always devising new strategies to destroy us with the help 
of other non-Muslim nations."

No amount of arguing can dissuade Shoaib, and two friends of roughly 
the same age, who back every word he says by resolutely nodding their 
heads. The boys are not pupils of a madrassah, the much-reviled 
religious 'alternative' educational system that has recently 
attracted so much attention. Instead, they attend an elite school in 
the city, receiving some of the best education available in the 
country. Their apparently unshakeable opinions seem to be built on 
the basis of what they learn in their textbooks and the attitudes of 
the teachers who instruct them.

In some ways, it is the opinions held by people who are a part of the 
mainstream, educated at reputable schools and holding posts in 
various spheres at the very heart of society, that are more 
disturbing than the views of the minority belonging to extremist 
religious groups or educated at the seminaries they run.

At the prestigious Civil Services Academy, there are future 
bureaucrats who apparently believe women should not be educated as 
this promotes divorce. Others, who are now sadly a part of the civil 
service, firmly insist that Sindh is in fact less developed than the 
Punjab because Sindhis are lazy and incompetent.

It would seem that the exponents of these views are genuinely 
convinced that their opinions are correct. A post-graduate student at 
the Punjab University, for instance, is apparently planning a 
doctoral thesis on his curious argument that all Sindhis are in fact 
Hindus in reality, and simply 'disguise' themselves as Muslims, 
apparently to achieve mysterious 'benefits' that he failed to 
elaborate on.

Indeed, the amount of prejudice, and ignorance, that exists within 
society is sometimes astonishing. Ill-informed opinions about the 
intellectual capabilities, habits and practices of various ethnic and 
religious groups abound.

Apparently well-educated professionals have been known to explain in 
all seriousness the 'details' of the sexual orgies that they say take 
place during the closed-door religious rituals followed by a certain 
sect. Others state that the Ahmadis, who in fact preach a 
particularly orthodox view on many issues, encourages adultery and 
teaches its followers to 'abuse' Muslims.

Disturbingly, it would also appear that such beliefs are growing, 
rather than being gradually eliminated as a result of education and 
wider interaction between people from different parts of the country. 
School and college text-books of course tend to encourage some kinds 
of bias, most notably against India and Hindus. Other prejudices are 
subtler, woven into texts that assign only traditional roles for 
women or use obviously foreign-looking women to illustrate essays 
about an air-hostess or a female athlete.

But perhaps more damaging than what is included in school books, the 
media and other dominant channels of information in a society where 
few people read, many are unable to read and only a tiny minority of 
children have access to books beyond those included in their school 
syllabus, is the huge wealth of knowledge that is excluded. 
Astonishingly, given their huge impact on the history of the country, 
the terrible events that led to the breaking away of East Pakistan 
and the creation of Bangladesh are never mentioned. It is as if a 
dark shroud has been flung over an entire period in history, and the 
realities of the time as such erased -- even though they are crucial 
to understanding the nature of the country and the tensions that 
exist within it today.

Members of the generation who grew up after 1971 often have no idea 
at all of what issues underpinned the civil war or why it took place. 
The genocide committed in the territory that now constitutes 
Bangladesh, the loss of its immense cultural heritage and history and 
the scars this conflict left behind, are hardly ever discussed or 
even spoken off on passing within the Pakistan of today.

Clearly, a discussion of how prejudice and ignorance played a role in 
the breaking away of one wing of the country would be hugely relevant 
at a time when ethnic prejudice appears to be growing deeper. The 
fact that no effort is made to encourage Pakistanis to learn a 
regional language from another part of the country or study the 
culture and history of regions within the countries adds to this. It 
is hard to identify any institute in the Punjab that offers 
instruction in the Sindhi or Pushto or Brahvi or Balochi language. In 
contrast, advertisements for classes in English, French, Arabic or 
German can be spotted everywhere. The same holds true in other 
provinces.

Whereas schools in the US now widely offer Spanish at the school 
level to encourage children to familiarise themselves with the 
growing Hispanic population in the country, such efforts at 
assimilation and greater understanding of other cultures have never 
formed a part of policymaking in the national context. Going back 
further in history, the enormously intriguing and unique culture of 
the Indus Valley forms no part of most academic curriculums. The fact 
that the astonishingly advanced civilization that existed at the time 
was the only one in that era not to possess a single weapon is a fact 
that Pakistani children never learn. Similarly, the fascinating 
history of Balochistan, of parts of the Punjab and the NWFP are kept 
locked away within the pages of often outdated academic texts that 
are unavailable and unknown to all but a few in the country. It is 
clear that if bias and the hatred it generates based on religious, 
ethnic or sectarian factors is to be suctioned gradually out of 
society and from the minds of future generations, a coordinated 
effort needs to be made. Not only will textbooks at school and 
college level have to be drastically redesigned, the officially 
controlled media also used to generate discussions on issues that 
have so far remained taboo. In this respect, the advent of private 
television channels, some of which have in fact taken up some aspects 
of history for debate, is a positive step. But at the same time, it 
is the state too that needs to play a role in promoting change and 
fighting against the ignorance that exists within every segment of 
society. Until a broad policy aimed at attaining such an end is 
designed and put in place, the blind bias that acts to create so many 
divisions within society will remain in place and contribute to the 
multiple tensions that exist and the episodes of violence that break 
out from time to time in various parts of the country.

______



[7.]

Date: Sat,  9 Aug 2003 11:00:27 +0500
Subject: LAHORE ORGANIZATIONS COMMEMORATING HIROSHIMA - NAGASAKI

Lahore Organizations Commemorating Hiroshima - Nagasaki

Rehman Faiz
President Amnesty International Lahore

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the airplane Enola Gay (named after the
pilot's mother) was flying over Japan. At 8:15am the crew let drop a bomb they
had dubbed "Little Boy" over the city of Hiroshima. Their plane was well out of
the way when the explosion occurred. With the force of 20,000 tons of TNT it
obliterated most of the city of Hiroshima. Seventy thousand men, women and
children were killed immediately. Thousands more continued living and
suffering. Thousands threw themselves into the Ota River.

Three days later on Augudt 9, 40,000 more humans were incinerated in Nagasaki.
These were clearly among the great atrocities of World War II, much as some of
us would like to deny it. The primary argument was that this act saved the
lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers who might have had to fight a ground war in
Japan. Dissenters have argued that Japan was already exploring with the
Russians, who had not yet entered the Pacific war action, the possibilities of
a peace agreement. Unfortunately, the Japanese were motivated to intensify
their resistance when the policy of "unconditional surrender" was announced by
President Truman.

The fact remains that a weapon that had been tested, and whose destructive
power could be foretold, was first used against a civilian population. One of
the A-bomb's originators, J. Robert Oppenheimer, said, "Today...pride must be
tempered with a profound concern. If atomic bombs are to be added as new
weapons to the arsenals of...[the] world...then the time will come when mankind
will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The peoples of the world must
unite, or they will perish. This war that has ravaged so much of the earth, has
written these words. The atomic bomb has spelled them out for all men to
understand." 

After the bomb's destructive power was first demonstrated, Albert Einstein, the
world's most famous scientist, and one of the bomb's originators,
declared, "Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived by those possessing the
power to make great decisions for good or evil. The unleashed power of the atom
has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward
unparalleled catastrophe...a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to
survive and move toward higher levels."
Today we are mired in the same mode of thinking that produced the atrocities of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Our dominant beliefs include these:
The nation is more sacred than human life.
We must always be prepared to wreak massive killing and destruction 
a) for self-
defense, and b) for deterrence.
Our institutions designed for this destruction (our militaries) deserve our
highest honor and admiration.
The people who make up these militaries are especially to be praised.
Highest honors-medals, ranks, etc.-go to those who have participated in the
process of killing and destruction.

Albert Einstein's concept of a new way of thinking called for the disarmament
of nations under the security umbrella of a world government. He
declared, "...with all my heart I believe that the world's present system of
sovereign nations can lead only to barbarism, war, and inhumanity, and only
through world law can we assure progress toward civilization."
And, "A world government with powers adequate to guarantee security is not a
remote ideal for the distant future. It is an immediate necessity if our
civilization is to continue. It is the condition of survival of ourselves and
of all we value."

How like Oppenheimer's words, "The peoples of the world must unit, or they will
perish!"
In the years that have passed since these concerns were expressed, what
progress has been made in this respect?
1. The old modes of thinking still adhere.
2. Our life-sustaining environment is in rapid decline.
3. Destructive weaponry (and the vast profits it produces for money- and power-
hungry men) has proliferated in every continent.
4. The United Nations Organization, based on the maintenance of sovereign
nations, loosely united by treaties, but without credible, effective world law,
has proven incapable of preventing dozens of bloody wars, the spread of nuclear
weaponry, and the on-going destruction of our life-sustaining environment.

To commemorate the nuclear bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an event was
jointly arranged by Amnesty International Lahore, DCHD and ASR on August 6, at
DCHD office Lahore. Along with the members of these organizations, a
significant number of people representing different segments of life
participated in the meeting.

Addressing the meeting the speakers said that the Hiroshima - Nagaski events
have temendous importance in the history of the mankind, as those started a new
era underscoring the new dimensions of human destructive powers as well as
pointing toward human self-destructive end. They said that the nuclear bombing
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an expression of the power mentality since neither
the U.S. congress nor the general public was aware that a nuclear weapon was
being developed, let alone that it would be used. With the use of such a big
destructive power against the innocent people, morality vanished, secrecy
prevailed and great crimes were committed without consultation.

Analyzing the current situation of the South Asia, the speakers expressed their
fear for a possible nuclear war between India and Pakistan due to the immature
and inflexible behaviors of the rulers of the two countries since May 1998.
They said the apparent developments in the relations between the two countries
are mainly because of the 'external pressure' and not because of the 'peace
desires' of the rulers. They highlighted the statments of of the rulers during
the past few months, which show no flexibility in their stands on the core
issues including Kashmir.

The speakers urged the civil society organizations to come forward to cultivate
the wisdom of peace among the people and to compel the rulers to take real
steps for achieving factual and long lasting peace in the area. Rehman Faiz,
Wasim Anthony, Amjad Saleem, Tanveer Jehan, Saeeda Diep and Shazia Shaheen were
among the speaker.

An Urdu documentary film named, 'Pakistan, Hindustan Aur Atom Bomb' directed
and produced by the renowned physicist Dr. Pervaiz Hoodbhoy was screened to the
participants which was much appreciated and honoured by the participants.



_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace 
and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent & 
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